2016.03.25: Plans on NPC towns and related changes
Upon Dawn buyout quite few new features were promised and a part of them are already implemented in the game. The work on rest of the listed game improvements is still going strong and these features are still a priority and being constantly worked on. This article will shed more light on the planned removal of NPC towns and changes affected by it. Firstly the ability for new players to spawn in new towns won't just be removed in one morning, but rather changes will be applied carefully and incrementally while observing how this impacts new players and the game overall. The change is also aimed at improving rates of new players staying in the game, since gangs will be interested to keep their towns where players spawn well maintained and new players coached to the tricks of the game! New players staring in player cities Before disabling spawns in NPC cities a spawning option in player cities will be introduced. One spawn will be set as recommended and default for new players joining to the game. This recommended spawn will be calculated by various criteria, such as: *amount of PVP going on in the sector *only positive reputation gangs *Town and building levels *Amount of radiation in the sector *Amount of salvage in the sector *Guard building (we'll be possible to build in player spawning towns) It's also likely that the spawn calculator will prefer a lower ranked gang to try to keep more balanced flow of players to the gangs. This change will also allow more sandboxy gameplay - the current most active game's location might shift from the current location of New Hope to somewhere near ruins of Los Angles or San Francisco, or even Las Vegas? It's going to be up to the playerbase themselves to affect this change! Radiation placement overhaul The current radiation placement will get completely overhauled. For example, the current western radiation wall is placed to keep new players from getting to western areas which are supposed for higher level players (oil rigs, ex-military raider bosses and so on), but it's clear it doesn't really work and only gets new players frustrated by forcing them to travel large areas just to get around a radiated sector. So instead radiation will be placed mainly on large ruined towns where better salvage is expected. Mountains and desert will still have less radiation. New structure - A camp Some bandit players who currently doesn't get lots of support of other gangs, might get completely pushed out of the game if such bandit allowing towns as Oasis are removed and nothing is given in place. Here comes "a camp" - a new structure, works like a regular settlement, but visible only from few squares away and have a maximum of around 4 upgrades (this means only maximum level 2 of any of the buildings) and can be built and owned by a gang or any regular player even without a gang. This will still give an advantage to gangs owning permanent settlements (better mercs, more crafting options), but won't completely annihilate bandit players. This will open a new gameplay aspect for not only bandit based players but for any other players as well. Not all players want to join a gang or are of an appropriate level to build structures, so camp can be used as a "home" for any given player as well. Or even as an secret resupply base in areas of enemy gang! Last NPC towns removed Only when all of the above changes are implemented and proven to work, new player spawn of New Hope will be disabled and remaining NPC towns will be set to expire! The changes listed above aren't set in stone and might be adjusted. Category:Updates